Thursday, June 19, 2008

We, of course, already knew this.

Says the tough guys at ColdHardFootballFacts.com, that’s who.Many stories at Cold, Hard are full of statistics and numbers crunching, but not so much for this one, in which all 32 NFL teams are ranked from first to last in terms of their whole history.

“There’s no truly empirical answer,” the Web site’s writers admit, referring to the way they arrived at the ranking.

Instead they tried another kind of index.

“We tackled the challenge of ranking the franchises from the point of view of the fans, using our Misery-to-Joy Theory of Fan Relativity,” they write. “Essentially, we measured the amount of misery a franchise has forced upon its fans against the amount of celebratory games, moments and titles a franchise has (given) its fans.”

The Packers had enough going for them to blot out the misery the team inflicted on their fans in the 1970s and ’80s.

They also considered overall winning percentage, winning seasons, championship seasons and number of great players.

“We could have put a ‘controversial’ team in the No. 1 spot just to get a rise out of people and stir up a hornet’s nest of head-scratching hype,” they said. “But then we’d be no better than the hairy-palmed hacks at ESPN and would not be doing a service to you, our readers. The truth is that only one team belongs at the top.”

Football fans will enjoy perusing the entire list, #32 through #1 (sorry, I’ve spoiled the ending for you).

I was a touch surprised to see which team had the best all-time record.

The Packers recently made an exploratory inquiry with the Miami Dolphins, who are trying to decide what to do with the disgruntled Taylor. In recent days, the Dolphins have indicated they’re interested in retaining Taylor, the defensive end who won the NFL’s defensive player of the year award in 2006.

…Working in the Packers’ favor is Taylor’s relationship with their defensive coordinator, Bob Sanders, and defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn. Both coached Taylor when they were on the Dolphins’ staff during the early 2000s. Neither Nunn nor Sanders would say whether they’d push for General Manager Ted Thompson to acquire Taylor, but both lauded him as a player.

Taylor is 33 years old, heading into his 12th NFL season. He’s averaged over 10 sacks a year during his career – over 12 per year the last three seasons.

… the Dolphins are believed to be seeking a second-round draft pick but might settle for a third- or fourth-round pick. That’s a high price for a player who has said he may play only one more season.

It would be out of character for the Packers to make that happen. Still, it’d be a good pickup, if for no other reason than: